The Psychology of The Psychology of TerrorTerror

The reconstruction of terrorismThe reconstruction of terrorismsince 2000 since 2000

Prof. Craig Jackson

Head of Psychology DivisionBCU

craig.jackson@bcu.ac.uk

Brief and Partial HistoryBrief and Partial History

“One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter”

The attacks on September 11 confirmed that terrorism had acquired a new face

Terrorists were now engaged in a campaign of suicide and mass murder on a huge scale

Previously it had been possible to believe that there were limits beyond which even terrorists would not go

After the thousands of deaths on September 11, it was evident that at least one group would stop at nothing.

Cyber TerrorismCyber Terrorism

CheapCheap

Most vulnerable pointMost vulnerable point

£500 Million budget£500 Million budget

History of UK Political Terror AttacksHistory of UK Political Terror Attacks

February 197412 killed and 14 hurt when a bomb planted by the IRA blows up on a coach carrying

soldiers and families from Manchester to their base in Catterick

October-November 1974IRA steps up its campaign, killing 28 people and injuring more than 200 in attacks on

British pubs in Birmingham, Guildford and Woolwich, south-east London

March 1979Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Airey Neave, a close friend of Conservative leader

Margaret Thatcher, is murdered when a car bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army explodes as he drives up the exit ramp of the car park at the House of Commons

July 1982Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London's Hyde Park and Regents Park kill 11

people and wound 50

History of UK Political Terror AttacksHistory of UK Political Terror Attacks

December 19836 people - including 3 police officers - are killed and 90 are injured when an IRA bomb explodes at London's Harrods department store

October 1984IRA bomb attack on the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where Tory party members are staying

during their annual conference. 5 people die and 34 are wounded

December 1988Pan Am Boeing 747 crashes on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 on board

after a bomb explodes. 11 people in Lockerbie are also killed

September 1989A bomb at the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, Kent, kills 11 bandsmen and

wounds 22 others.

July 1990Tory MP Ian Gow, opposed an Anglo-Irish agreement on Northern Ireland, killed by an

IRA bomb which exploded at his Sussex home.

History of UK Political Terror AttacksHistory of UK Political Terror Attacks

April 1992A huge car bomb outside the Baltic Exchange in London's financial district kills three people and wounds 91

March 1993Two children die when bombs explode in two litter bins in Warrington, Cheshire. Jonathan Ball 3, and Tim Parry 12, are killed as they walk through the shopping centre.

April 1993London's financial district is again targeted as an IRA lorry bomb devastates the

Bishops gate area, killing 1 and wounding 44.

February 1996An IRA ceasefire comes to a bloody end when a large bomb explodes in London's

Docklands area, killing 2 people and causing massive damage.

Non-Political UK TerrorNon-Political UK Terror

April 1992:

Brief and Partial HistoryBrief and Partial History

“One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter”

The attacks on September 11 confirmed that terrorism had acquired a new face

Terrorists were now engaged in a campaign of suicide and mass murder on a huge scale

Previously it had been possible to believe that there were limits beyond which even terrorists would not go

After the thousands of deaths on September 11, it was evident that at least one group would stop at nothing.

Terrorist MechanicsTerrorist Mechanics

Brief and Partial HistoryBrief and Partial History

The word 'terrorism' entered into European languages in the wake of the French revolution of 1789

In the early revolutionary years, it was largely by violence that governments in Paris tried to impose their radical new order on a reluctant citizenry

As a result, the first meaning of the word 'terrorism', as recorded by the Académie Française in 1798, was 'system or rule of terror'.

This serves as a healthy reminder that terror is often at its bloodiest when used by dictatorial governments against their own citizens

Brief and Partial HistoryBrief and Partial History

Terrorism was not always like it is now

Its history is as much European as Middle Eastern, and as much secular as religious

Far from being wilfully indiscriminate, it was often pointedly discriminate

Yet there are some common threads that can be tracedthrough the history of terrorism

What happened on September 11 was a new twist in an old story of fascination with political violence

AssassinationAssassination

During the 19th Century terrorism underwent a fateful transformation

Associated today with non-governmental groups

1878-81 the small band of Russian revolutionaries of 'Narodnaya Volya' (the people's will) used the word 'terrorist' proudly

They developed certain ideas that were to become the hallmark of subsequent terrorism in many countries.

They believed in the targeted killing of the 'leaders of oppression'; they were convinced that the developing technologies of the age - symbolized by bombs and bullets - enabled them to strike directly and discriminately.

Narodnaya Volya

AssassinationAssassination

Above all, they believed that the Tsarist system against which they were fighting was fundamentally rotten

They propagated what has remained the common terrorist delusion that violent acts would spark off revolution

Their efforts led to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 13 March 1881

That event failed completely to have the revolutionary effects of which the terrorists had dreamed

Assassinations ContinuedAssassinations Continued

Terrorism continued for many decades to be associated primarilywith the assassination of political leaders and heads of state

This was symbolized by the killing of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand by a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb student, Gavril Princip, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914

The huge consequences of this event were not the ones that Princip and his fellow members of 'Young Bosnia' had envisaged

Princip could not believe that the assassination had triggered the outbreak of world war in 1914.

In general, the extensive practice of assassination in the 20th Century seldom had the particular effects for which terrorists hoped.

Terrorism EvolvesTerrorism Evolves

In the half-century after the World War Two, terrorism broadened well beyond assassination of political leaders and heads of state

In some European colonies, terrorist movements developed, often with two distinct purposes.

1: to put pressure on the colonial powers (such as Britain, France, and the Netherlands) to hasten their withdrawal.

2: to intimidate the indigenous population into supporting a particular group's claims to leadership of the emerging post-colonial state.

India's achievement of independence in 1947 was mainly the result, not of terrorism, but of the movement of non-violent civil disobedience led by Gandhi

In Malaya, communist terrorists launched a major campaign in 1948, but they failed due to a mixture of determined British military opposition and a programme of political reform leading to independence

Civilians as TargetsCivilians as Targets

Terrorism did not end after the winding-up of the main European overseas empires in the 1950s and 1960s. It continued in many regions.

In South-East Asia, Middle East and Latin America there were killings of policemen and local officials, hostage-takings, hijackings of aircraft, and bombings of buildings

In many actions, civilians became targets.

In some cases governments became involved in supporting terrorism, almost invariably at arm's length so as to be deniable.

The causes espoused by terrorists encompassed not just revolutionary socialism and nationalism, but also in a few cases religious doctrines. Law, even the modest body of rules setting some limits in armed conflict between states, could be ignored in a higher cause.

Civilians as TargetsCivilians as Targets

How did certain terrorist movements come to be associated with indiscriminate killings?

September 1970 - Palestinian terrorists hijacked several large aircraft and blew them up on the ground in Jordan but let the passengers free

Viewed by many with as much fascination as horror

September 1972, 11 Israelis were murdered in a Palestinian attack on Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games at Munich

This event showed a determination to kill: the revulsion felt in many countries was stronger than two years earlier

JustificationJustification

A justification offered by the perpetrators of these and many subsequent terrorist actions in the Middle East was that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (which had begun in 1967) was an exercise of violence against which counter-violence was legitimate.

The same was said in connection with the suicide bombings by which Palestinians attacked Israel in 2001-2002.

In some of the suicide bombings there was a new element which had not been evident in the Palestinian terrorism of 2 or 3 decades earlier: Islamic religious extremism.

Beyond the StateBeyond the State

In the 1990s, a new face of terrorism emerged.

Osama Bin Laden, son of a successful construction engineerbecame leader of a small fanatical Islamic movement Al-Qaida

Its public statements were an odd mixture of religious extremism, contempt for existing Arab regimes, hostility to US dominance, and insensitivity to the effects of terrorist actions

Many of its leaders, having helped to free Afghanistan of Soviet occupation in the 1980s, now developed the broader ambition of resisting western dominance, especially in Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt

In pursuit of these ambitions they killed hundreds in bombings of US embassies in Africa in August 1998

New Kind of TerrorismNew Kind of Terrorism

Here was a new kind of movement that had

a cause

a network, that was

not confined to any one state

whose adherents were willing to commit suicide if they could thereby inflict carnage and destruction on their adversaries

Since their aims were vague and apocalyptic, there was little scope for any kind of compromise or negotiation

United NationsUnited Nations

Main emphasis at the UN was on limited practical measures

Series of 12 international conventions between 1963 and 1999, particular terrorist actions, such as aircraft hijacking and diplomatic hostage-taking, were prohibited

As the 1990s progressed, and concern about terrorism increased, the UN General Assembly embarked on discussions about defining and outlawing terrorism generally. Its Legal Committee issued a rough draft of a convention, which:

Reiterates that criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstances unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be used to justify them.

Terrorist GroupsTerrorist Groups

In the past there have been strong disagreements about whether certain movements were or were not terrorist: e.g.

Jewish extremist group Irgun in Palestine in the 1940sViet Cong in South Vietnam from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s onwards

Famously, in 1987-88 the UK and US governments labelled the African National Congress of South Africa 'terrorist': a questionable attribution even at the time not because there had been no violence, but because the ANC's use of violence had been discriminate and had constituted only a small part of the ANC's overall strategy.

International RevulsionInternational Revulsion

The new face of terrorism as mass murder is significantly changing such debates

The extremism of the September 11 attacks has led to a strong international reaction. As a result, none of the 189 member states of the UN opposed the USA's right to take military action in Afghanistan after the events of September 11, and none has offered explicit support for Al-Qaida

By engaging in crimes against humanity, the new face of terrorism may have contributed to its own eventual demise.

Dr. Theodore John Kaczynski

16 bombs16 bombs

1978 - 19951978 - 1995

3 killed3 killed

23 injured23 injured

Freedom ClubFreedom Club

Dr. Theodore John Kaczynski

Richard ReidRichard Reid

Attempted bombing on AA 63Attempted bombing on AA 63

22 Dec 200122 Dec 2001

Shoe bomberShoe bomber

Beltway Sniper AttacksBeltway Sniper Attacks

Oct 2002Oct 2002

John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd MalvoJohn Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo

Washington DC snipers in blue Chevrolet CapriceWashington DC snipers in blue Chevrolet Caprice

Demanded 1 Million USD to fund Islamic Training CampsDemanded 1 Million USD to fund Islamic Training Camps

10 killed10 killed

3 critically injured3 critically injured

Terrorism as Routine NewsTerrorism as Routine News

ID CardsID Cards

CCTV Anti-terrorismCCTV Anti-terrorism

False Flag TerrorismFalse Flag Terrorism

Nero burned Rome to blame the Christians A.D. 64

US provoked Mexican-American war 1846

USS Maine sinking 1898

Lusitania sinking 1915

Reichstag fire 1933

Hitler’s staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station 1939

The “surprise attack” at Pearl Harbor 1941

Bay of Pigs conspiracy 1961

Security IndustriesSecurity Industries

Terrorism 2000Terrorism 2000

Al-Qaeda terrorist network carried out two separate attacks against the United States in 2000 and 2001.

a suicide bombing of the U.S. naval destroyer USS Cole in the Yemenese port of Aden on October 12, 2000, claimed the lives of 17 U.S. sailors.

a coordinated suicide attack using four hijacked U.S. commercial aircraft as missiles on September 11, 2001, resulted in the deaths of 2,783 innocent people.

The September 11 attacks represent the most deadly and destructive terrorist attack in history and claimed more lives than all previous acts of terrorism in the United States combined.

The attack of September 11 represented the first successful act of international terrorism carried out in the United States since the bombing of the World Trade Centre in February 1993.

Eco TerrorismEco Terrorism

Bilateral termBilateral term

Anarcho PrimitivismAnarcho Primitivism

Green AnarchismGreen Anarchism

Radical EnvironmentalismRadical Environmentalism

Consumer TerrorismConsumer Terrorism

Lone wolf operationsLone wolf operations

Monetary motivesMonetary motives

Disgruntled employees / ex-employeesDisgruntled employees / ex-employees

Incidents Vs. PreventionsIncidents Vs. Preventions

Political MotivationPolitical Motivation

Anthrax Postal CampaignAnthrax Postal Campaign

Black PanthersBlack Panthers

10 point programme

• We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities' education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.

• We want completely free health care for all black and oppressed people.• We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people, other people of colour, and all

oppressed people inside the United States.• We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.• We want full employment for our people.• We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our Black Community.• We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.• We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society.• We want freedom for all black and oppressed people now held in U. S. Federal, state, county, city and military

prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.

• We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's community control of modern technology

FBI J Edgar HooverFBI J Edgar Hoover“the greatest threat to the internal security of the country,”

Oklahoma City Bomber – Hard Line JusticeOklahoma City Bomber – Hard Line Justice

White SupremacistsWhite Supremacists

Pro-Life ExtremistsPro-Life Extremists

Terrorist Activity by TargetTerrorist Activity by Target

Restriction of Freedom and Civil LibertiesRestriction of Freedom and Civil Liberties

Shoot to Kill PolicyShoot to Kill Policy

Extreme powers to policeExtreme powers to police

Ultimate deadly forceUltimate deadly force

No prosecutionNo prosecution

Further ReadingFurther Reading

Terrorism and International Order by Lawrence Freedman et al. (Routledge and Kegan Paul for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1986)

The Terrorists: From Tsarist Russia to the O.A.S by Roland Gaucher (Secker and Warburg, 1968)

The Age of Terrorism by Walter Laqueur (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987)

Terrorism and the Liberal State (2nd edition) by Paul Wilkinson (Macmillan, 1986)

The Assassins by Bernard Lewis, Oxford University Press, April 1987

The Day that Shook the World by the BBC News Team (BBC Books, 2001)